What is That Noise
For a couple of weeks I had been noticing an exhaust leak on Rosie during my one hour commute into the city in the mornings while the world is still dark and again on my one hour (or more) commute home in the evenings. When I first started hearing it, I checked all the flanges where the bolt on the cylinder heads and all of the clamps the length of both exhaust pipes. But again the next day, I swore I could hear an exhaust leak. Kinda like hearing a piece of paper rattling over the edge of a can. Slowly I started noticing the bike's mellow rumblings controlled by the tuned muffler system seemed more raw, gutty, and loud. I checked the mufflers to find no fault as well.
But with all of the heat shielding strapped over the exhaust pipes, one can only see the underside of most of the exhaust system. But what could I be missing? As time rolled on, I kept thinking it seemed louder and back fired a bit when rolling out of the throttle like an old pickup with a burned out muffler. I also noticed that the engine's torque seemed a little flatter than normal. All of these symptoms pointed to an exhaust leak to me.
Finally, one afternoon, I started the bike on its side stand to let it warm while I put on my riding leathers before my commute home. I thought I might as well wave my hand around the exhaust work closest to both heads while it was running to detect where the leak could be. I waved my hand around the front cylinders exhaust system and could not detect any warm air escaping. I checked the rear cylinder from the left side of the bike, same findings. I then checked the rear cylinder from the right side of the bike and whoa! there is hot compressed air belching out there. I leaned over and squinted my eyes to see if I could see anything. And, in the narrow space where two heat shields come together, there was just enough of a gap to see a crack in the exhaust pipe below it and occasional sparks coming from the crack.
Harley-Davidson had designed a crossover pipe between the front and rear exhaust systems. This crossover looks like a large horseshoe running from the left side exhaust to the right side exhaust, and the top of the upside down "U" has a short piece of pipe that connects to the rear cylinder. Where that short piece of pipe connected to the top of the upside down "U" is where the exhaust had cracked. The crack looked more like a small rupture which explained why it sounded louder and produced backfire when rolling out of the throttle. This leak was right under the front edge of the seat.
So, I spent Saturday removing all of the heat shields to take a better look at the exhaust system. I soon found that the crossover had indeed failed and appeared beyond repairing by welding. New exhaust would have to be installed. Fortunately, the bike was equipped with slip-on mufflers that could be retained.
I located proper replacement parts and put them on order and returned to the garage to remove the old exhaust pipes. Once having them removed, it was apparent the crossover pipe was no more, worms food, pushing up the daisies, it had shuffled off its mortal coil, it was the ex-crossover pipe. And as a side note, a considerable amount of WD-40 is required when removing "slip-on" mufflers from exhaust pipes that have seen 35,000 miles of riding before said mufflers just slip right off.
This evening, the new Sampson pipes were delivered, so I set down and installed them. They definately look a lot better than the old pipes, less confusion and no more crossover. Nice one piece pipe on both sides.
No more exhaust leak under the seat either. All the exhaust is going thru the mufflers again. The nice refined sound she used to have is back and the throttle response seems much better.
We now resume this normal commute...
But with all of the heat shielding strapped over the exhaust pipes, one can only see the underside of most of the exhaust system. But what could I be missing? As time rolled on, I kept thinking it seemed louder and back fired a bit when rolling out of the throttle like an old pickup with a burned out muffler. I also noticed that the engine's torque seemed a little flatter than normal. All of these symptoms pointed to an exhaust leak to me.
Finally, one afternoon, I started the bike on its side stand to let it warm while I put on my riding leathers before my commute home. I thought I might as well wave my hand around the exhaust work closest to both heads while it was running to detect where the leak could be. I waved my hand around the front cylinders exhaust system and could not detect any warm air escaping. I checked the rear cylinder from the left side of the bike, same findings. I then checked the rear cylinder from the right side of the bike and whoa! there is hot compressed air belching out there. I leaned over and squinted my eyes to see if I could see anything. And, in the narrow space where two heat shields come together, there was just enough of a gap to see a crack in the exhaust pipe below it and occasional sparks coming from the crack.
Harley-Davidson had designed a crossover pipe between the front and rear exhaust systems. This crossover looks like a large horseshoe running from the left side exhaust to the right side exhaust, and the top of the upside down "U" has a short piece of pipe that connects to the rear cylinder. Where that short piece of pipe connected to the top of the upside down "U" is where the exhaust had cracked. The crack looked more like a small rupture which explained why it sounded louder and produced backfire when rolling out of the throttle. This leak was right under the front edge of the seat.
So, I spent Saturday removing all of the heat shields to take a better look at the exhaust system. I soon found that the crossover had indeed failed and appeared beyond repairing by welding. New exhaust would have to be installed. Fortunately, the bike was equipped with slip-on mufflers that could be retained.
I located proper replacement parts and put them on order and returned to the garage to remove the old exhaust pipes. Once having them removed, it was apparent the crossover pipe was no more, worms food, pushing up the daisies, it had shuffled off its mortal coil, it was the ex-crossover pipe. And as a side note, a considerable amount of WD-40 is required when removing "slip-on" mufflers from exhaust pipes that have seen 35,000 miles of riding before said mufflers just slip right off.
This evening, the new Sampson pipes were delivered, so I set down and installed them. They definately look a lot better than the old pipes, less confusion and no more crossover. Nice one piece pipe on both sides.
No more exhaust leak under the seat either. All the exhaust is going thru the mufflers again. The nice refined sound she used to have is back and the throttle response seems much better.
We now resume this normal commute...
